The present invention relates to a curtain rod for slidably supporting curtains, and to a variable-position juncture element for joining sections of the curtain rod.
In the field of curtain rods for supporting curtains, allowing said curtains to slide, or more precisely allowing saddles or curtain runners and other possible curtain drive or support elements to slide, juncture elements for accomplishing the juncture between sections or portions of the curtain rod with hollow cylindrical or rectangular sleeve elements, which may be either rectilinear or bent, are known.
Such elements are usually slid onto outsides of the portions to unite them, and generally, inasmuch as their height or width is larger than that of the portions to be united, they generate a step which causes the curtain-supporting runners to catch and stop. Furthermore, the prior art bent portions (i.e., juncture elements), in case they have a fixed structure, are poorly flexible in use, in that they require a predetermined bent pattern to be mandatorily adopted, which sometimes does not correspond to the requirements posed by the particular application envisaged. On the other hand, if such juncture elements are suitable for being bent, they usually cause internal bosses or folds to arise, which increase the causes of runner stopping. This problem is even more severe for all the other functional elements which may be slidingly supported by the curtain rod.
Therefore the technical problem is evident, of being able to realize a curtain rod for slidingly supporting curtains, which is capable of solving the above-described drawbacks, making possible an easy and confortable sliding to be obtained by means of a good juncture element which makes possible variable positioning as desired, i.e., a spatial disposition specific to the inclination and bending radius of the necessary application, to be accomplished.
Of course, such a curtain rod and/or juncture element should also allow drive elements for the curtain, support elements for curtain ends, and, more generally, the cumbersome elements which sometimes are necessary in certain curtain support applications, to perfectly slide thereon.